Dr. Yossi Beilin -- let's not forget the man has a PhD -- is truly following
in the footsteps of his political mentor Shimon Peres. "Peres' Poodle," as
former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Beilin, has had a dream of "peace" and
recently acted out his fantasy at Geneva. Like Peres, he's been rejected
in the electoral realm of politics. And also like Peres, since the Israeli
electorate rejected him, and he knows "better," Beilin has pursued
his "dream" into other realms. Beilin himself has called the Geneva
Initiative -- he helped author -- a "virtual" agreement that he
hopes to make real.

From the 1970s-90s, Shimon Peres had been up and down the Labor Party ladder
of leadership. His arch nemesis was Yitzhak Rabin. Twice Yitzhak Rabin led
the Labor Party to electoral success. Twice Peres succeeded him as prime
minister -- in parliamentary fashion -- without being elected, after unfortunate
circumstances caused Rabin's fall. The first time Rabin fell after the discovery
of his wife's illegal foreign currency bank account in America; the second
time, with his murder. But the oddest fact of all is that Peres has run for
prime minister five times and lost five elections, yet been prime minister
three times. How has he managed to circumvent the Israeli people's will?

We might not fully understand it, but Beilin does. He has managed to learn
the lessons well. What the people of Israel think, and how they vote is neither
hear nor there, it doesn't count. What counts is Beilin's "dream." And
what is Beilin's "dream"?

Beilin

Dr. Yossi Beilin -- a shrewd political scientist -- during the last Israeli
election season received too low a position during the internal Labor primary
to be realistically elected to the Knesset -- Israel's parliament -- so he
moved to the further-left Meretz Party. He managed to get himself put on
the party's election list, but Meretz didn't get that many votes and Beilin
didn't get into the Knesset, the first time since 1988. Yossi Beilin, like
his mentor Shimon Peres lost the election.

But Beilin had already tasted power. He's been Deputy Minister of Finance,
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economics and Social Development,
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Minister of Justice, and Minister
of Religious Affairs. His political drive toward the top seemed unstoppable.
Then the debacle called the "Oslo Process" became apparent, and
Yossi Beilin's secret back-channel involvement in formulating the whole Oslo
thing lost him credibility with "Joe Israeli," who hasn't been
too happy with the three-year-old Oslo War. Beilin paid the price, the way
politicians do in democratic countries -- if Israel was like it's neighbors,
he probably would have been executed -- instead he lost an election and was
drummed out of political life, temporarily.

But Beilin had a "dream." So, he organized a political movement
called Shachar-Dawn to push it forward. Yossi has been driven since the beginning
of the 1990s to bring "peace" to Israel, or at least, like his
mentor, to get himself to the top of the political ladder. Yossi understood
that Israel was going through some hard economic times, so like the Joseph
of the Bible, he proposed a "new social-democratic party." Swerving
away from his obsession of "peace," Yossi spoke words of social
equality and economic justice just long enough to build himself into a "complete" politician,
with a full range of policies. With the Geneva Initiative in his back pocket,
bankrolled by Switzerland and other EU states -- who want to set-up the Geneva
Initiative as a counter-balance to the US's Road Map -- he's cajoled members
of the Meretz Party to merge with Shachar. Yossi now stands to run for the
leadership of a combined party presently called Meretz-Ya'ad.

Beilin had a "dream," he would be a leader over his brothers.
And so, Yossi Beilin spoke to the people's fears of economic catastrophe.
He promised he could "fix the economy" and bring "peace" too.
So, Yossi and his friends negotiated a "peace agreement" unofficially,
as private citizens -- remember the Israeli government does not back the
Geneva Initiative -- with private Palestinian citizens.

It's not clear how much Arafat, or the Palestinian government supports the
Geneva Initiative, but it is known there have been several large demonstrations
in the West Bank and Gaza against the agreement, and Palestinian Authority
religious leaders have issued a "Fatwa" -- Islamic legal ruling
-- forbidding any Muslim from signing an agreement that gives up the so-called "right-of-return" of "Palestinian
Refugees." Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arafat's own Fatah have circulated
leaflets calling the Palestinians involved with the agreement "traitors
and collaborators," and called for them to be brought to trial.

But Yossi has a "dream" and a little opposition from Israelis
or Palestinians won't stop him, especially since he has a blank check from
Europe to chase his "dream." The Europeans finally found their
way and their "boy" to weasel into what had up to now been an exclusively
American adventure, the "peace process." Circumventing Israel's
democracy is second nature to the "poodle," just as his mentor
taught. By the way, Shimon Peres himself has expressed serious reservations
about the Geneva Initiative, including the giving away of the Temple Mount
to the Palestinians and any further Jewish claims to it. So have most prominent
politicians in Israel, including those from both large parties, Labor and
Likud.

By linking Israeli fears of economic collapse, to Yossi's "dream," of
Middle East peace, he is positioning himself to run for prime minister in
the future. But as the biblical Joseph -- who really wasn't in charge --
only second to Pharaoh, Yossi Beilin if he ever became prime minister of
Israel, is in the pocket of the Europeans.

Yossi Beilin, the student of Israel's preeminent political animal, is on
a destructive collision course with Jewish history. Like the biblical Joseph
story in reverse, he seems willing to trade Israeli rights for grain, i.e.
EU money. But whereas the biblical Joseph was doing G-D's will to help Egypt,
who would later preserve the small nascent Jewish People -- his father, brothers
and family -- during the famine, Yossi Beilin is willing to endanger Israel
in a poorly worded suicidal "peace agreement," and destroy Jewish
culture in the process.

Joseph had a dream, he would rule over his brothers for their sake and G-D's
plan; Yossi "dreams" to lead for his own selfish interests, and
it doesn't matter how many Jews die in the next war after the "peace
agreement" is signed and sovereignty over vast areas of the "Promised
Land" are transferred to the Palestinians. The proof of it is that he
hasn't expressed any regret about the approximately 1,300 Israelis killed
in the last ten years because of his "Oslo dream." Joseph tried
to preserve life during a famine; Yossi wants to throw more than 100,000
Jewish "settlers" out of their homes and impoverish them. And by
moving the borders of "Palestine" closer to Israel's population
centers, put millions of Jews on the front lines.

Yossi has a "dream," but if it comes true, it will become Israel's
nightmare!

Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's
Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear
regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank web sites, in newspapers,
and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko (c) 2003/5764 Pasko